Egypt awaits verdict in Hosni Mubarak trial

Egypt is today eagerly awaiting the verdict in the trial of Hosni Mubarak -
the first leader to be charged over his role in the Arab Spring. But, as Nick
Meo reports, the trial has not been universally welcomed.

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Egyptian women hold pictures of former president Hosni Mubarak outside the police academy where Mubarak is on trial in CairoPhoto: REUTERS

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Egyptian women hold a banner of former president Hosni Mubarak outside the police academy where Mubarak is on trial in CairoPhoto: REUTERS

The young Egyptians who risked their lives in Tahrir Square and saw their friends shot down around them could hardly believe it was true when Hosni Mubarak, the former president they had toppled from power, was put on trial last August.

For the first time an Arab dictator was suffering the humiliation of being tried in person by his own people, in a powerful warning to other rulers struggling to hold back protests inspired by the Arab Spring.

The charges were serious enough to send him to the gallows if found guilty: complicity to murder during six terrifying days of bloodshed in January 2011 when his security forces shot, beat and tortured 846 protesters to death. He was also accused of corruption.

Relatives of his victims gathered outside the makeshift courthouse - the former Mubarak Police Academy building, an hour's drive north of Cairo city centre - to taunt him with home-made nooses, as 5,000 security force personnel were put on standby.

He was flown in daily by helicopter from the luxurious hospital where he was staying, then wheeled into the courtroom strapped on a trolley, ashen-faced and sickly.

During the proceedings he was confined within a metal cage of bars and mesh like a common criminal, alongside his two hated sons, a senior crony and some ex-police chiefs, all beneficiaries of his corrupt 30-year rule and his co-accused in Egypt's trial of the century.

But instead of justice being seeing to be done, eight months later the trial has looked deeply flawed.

Many Egyptians believe that behind the scenes their army rulers fixed it so that the old commander-in-chief would not be treated too harshly, and could keep the secrets of his regime safe from public scrutiny.

Hundreds of lawyers claiming to represent Mr Mubarak's victims argued furiously in the courtroom and even wrestled and hit each other as they struggled to address the panel of three judges and give long, grandstanding speeches. One claimed the real president had died in 2004 and insisted that the defendant was an impostor who should be subjected to a DNA test.

After that pantomime there were delays, legal wrangles and procedural hold-ups. But what really eroded faith in the trial was the weakness of the prosecution case that was supposed to nail the former president.

What was not in doubt was the carnage between January 25 – 31, at the height of the Arab Spring.

Not only in Tahrir Square, the focal point for the anti-regime protests, but also in side streets of Cairo, villages in the Nile delta, and in the cities of Alexandria and Suez, hundreds of people were killed and far more injured. Paid thugs beat and kidnapped protesters, vehicles were driven into crowds at high speed to kill and maim, and snipers shot down protesters, then shot those who went to their aid.

At one point, as rival mobs clashed in the centre of Cairo, government supporters rode into Tahrir Square on the backs of camels, one of the most memorable images of the Arab Spring.

As bodies piled up in morgues nearly all Egyptians, and most of the world, believed the violence was specifically ordered to cow the protest movement, and to show the anarchy that the government could unleash when challenged.

Then on January 31, after intense pressure from Egypt's ally the United States and growing worldwide revulsion, the violence ended as abruptly as it had begun.

The hated police vanished from the streets, and the army arrived, to be greeted as saviours of the people - although they are no longer seen like that.

To most Egyptians, it seemed clear who had been responsible, but prosecutors could only sketch out a circumstantial case against Mr Mubarak.

Some of the biggest names from the old regime, such as Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and Omar Soliman, the former vice-president, told the court what had happened inside the presidential palace, a 400-room former hotel in the swankiest part of Cairo, during those extraordinary 18 days.

None gave evidence that then-President Mubarak had ordered the crackdown or directed his brutal security forces to kill or attack protesters, however.

Mr Mubarak's co-defendant Habib al-Adly, the former interior minister, told the court that unknown terrorists had sneaked into the country to shoot down civilians, at the behest of foreign powers.

Mr Mubarak's own celebrity lawyer Farid el-Deeb, known for flamboyantly smoking cigars during recess periods, said that his client "was clean and could say no wrong" and the victim of "slander and libel".

The uncomfortable fact, as prosecutors gave closing speeches in February and demanded the death penalty, was that there was no smoking gun. Instead of presenting hard evidence they could only argue weakly that, as president, Mr Mubarak must have known what was going on and the killings were so extensive and widely reported that he could have stopped them sooner had he wished.

Part of the problem with that argument was that the president, who at the time of the protests was aged 82 and suffering suspected cancer and heart problems, didn't really look as if he was in control of Egypt, or perhaps even his own faculties. He relied heavily on his sons and various cronies, and looked desperately out of touch throughout the crisis.

If he felt any emotion as his alleged crimes were recounted by lawyers and some of the 1,600 prosecution witnesses, he was careful to conceal it, always wearing dark glasses in court. He spent much of the proceedings with his hands behind his head, lying on his trolley, apparently paying little attention.

Under house arrest in one of his luxurious homes, and then in Cairo's International Medical Centre where he was closely guarded, he was depressed, endlessly watching taped football matches. Sometimes he would walk in the hospital's garden, striking a lonely figure.

It was a miserable ending for the career of a man who was genuinely loved by many of his people right up to moment on Feb 11 last year when he finally stepped down.

He still has admirers in Egypt, although they generally keep a low profile. A Facebook page called "We are sorry Mr President" managed a miserable 19 "likes".

His two sons Alaa and Gamal, who sometimes appeared in court carrying copies of the Koran and tried to stand in front of their father to shield him from television cameras, were accused of accepting bribes from developers. When their father ran Egypt as the family fiefdom they controlled much of the nation's business.

The corruption charges faced by Mubarak senior were for accepting a bribe from a developer who wanted to build a golf course in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh, and for a corrupt deal to sell gas to Israel for prices lower than the international market rate.

Gamal, the oldest and reputedly the greediest son, had been the elderly Mr Mubarak's heir-apparent, and many believe he was the real power behind his aged father's throne during the president's years of decline.

A clutch of top regime officials were also on trial accused of murdering protesters, including the former interior minister Habib al-Adly.

Hundreds more policemen murdered and tortured for the regime, and crooked officials stole without restraint. Many of them are still in their jobs.